So I have some more numbers to add to the stock 3930k stuff....I'll get em up in a bit.

I'll start a new group , 3930k stock -smp 10. ( I have the 3x 580's bangin away now.)

This brings me to a comment g777 : From what I've read , the smp client doesnt always 'like' odd numbers in the -smp # processor assignment flag.Pandegroup advises against it in the case of -smp 11...but don't take this as gospel or anything , it's obviously working for you......they say it may only error out with certain units etc....

I might give -smp 11 a shot myself , I'd certainly prefer to.

Thanks for the info BrainEater, interestingly I'm not sure it's really running -smp 11... cpu usage of the virtual box is pretty bang on 83% which would seem to be 10/12 cores. 11/12 cores should be ~92%. Not sure what's going on there...